The footballer’s talents had first been spotted by a scout while the 10-year-old was playing for Windsor Drive, a Gloucester boys’ outfit.

Jack soon joined the St Andrew’s Academy and made rapid strides through the ranks, relocating to Kings Norton.

He became a full-time Blues’ apprentice six years later, sharing space on a conveyor belt of stars with England keeper Jack Butland, Nathan Redmond and Jordan Mutch.

“It was a brilliant time,” he recalls. “It was a great, great club. I was definitely on course to be a professional footballer.

“What level might I have managed? It’s hard to say. I think the Championship was probably my level.

“It’s a real shame the way it turned out.”

Paralympian Jack Rutter talks to pupils at a County Festival organised as part of the Sainsbury's School Games Programme

Jack was handed a lifeline – a chance to again embrace the sport he loved – through brain injury charity Headway.

“I was living in Nottingham at the time and asked them if there were any disability sports I could play.”

Headway introduced Jack to the East Midlands Cerebral Palsy team and his growing reputation was soon rewarded with an England call-up.

Jack made his debut in 2012 and his international appearances include the 2014 European championships in Portugal. He has made 14 appearances for England – nine of them as captain – and scored 18 goals.

“I’ve put my demons to bed,” says Jack. “I have a positive outlook on life. I have managed to turn my life around – you’ve got to live life the best you can.

“I was told I wouldn’t be able to do this, I wouldn’t be able to do that, but I was determined to prove people wrong.

“My co-ordination and energy levels are up and down, but I’m in a much better place.”

Jack Rutter playing for the England Cerebral Palsy team

Whatever the outcome in Rio, Jack, a mentor for the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, feels he and his team-mates deserve high praise.

“We are talking about people who were once in wheelchairs, who were once bullied at school, and they have achieved this,” he explains.

“That is why I’m proud of them all.”

And he has a simple message for both abled and disabled athletes: “A lot of people give up too easily, they don’t believe they can still fulfill their dreams.”

Jack Rutter has scrubbed clean the bitterness that threatened to overwhelm his body, but he has failed to shake off the “what could’ve been”.

He’s simply learned to live with it.

After a moment’s thought, he admits “If I ever met the person who hit me`I’d ask ‘Have you learned your lesson? Are you sorry for what you did?’